Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the best-selling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

5 out of 5 stars

How To Live The Good Life

By
Anonymous User
on
02-12-19

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

By:
Cal Newport

Narrated by:
Dave Mallow

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,846

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,347

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,347

In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed - preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work - but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do.

4 out of 5 stars

Good Counter to all the "Passion" Career Lit

By
Erin
on
06-12-13

Summary: Cal Newport's Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

By:
Ant Hive Media

Narrated by:
Doron Alon

Length: 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
50

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
39

Story

3.5 out of 5 stars
38

One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results. Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.

4 out of 5 stars

Just enough to make me want to buy the whole book

By
Michael
on
02-28-17

How to Become a Straight-A Student

The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less

By:
Cal Newport

Narrated by:
Johnathan McClain

Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
102

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
89

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
88

A breakthrough approach to acing academic assignments, from quizzes and exams to essays and papers, How to Become a Straight-A Student reveals for the first time the proven study secrets of real straight-A students across the country and weaves them into a simple, practical system that anyone can master.

4 out of 5 stars

Wish I would've bought the paper book

By
Twomsixer
on
02-28-19

Ultralearning

Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career

By:
Scott Young

Narrated by:
Scott Young

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
219

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
195

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
191

Future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage by learning the skill necessary to stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way in this essential guide. Scott Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself - among them Ben Franklin, Judit Polgar, and Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymaths like Nigel Richards who won the World Championship of French Scrabble - without knowing French.

5 out of 5 stars

The best book on learning, and I read a few!

By
Allan Bravos
on
08-20-19

Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By:
Greg McKeown

Narrated by:
Greg McKeown

Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,598

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,098

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,951

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy - instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
Essentialism is not one more thing - it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives.
Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.

5 out of 5 stars

Multiple reads required

By
Chris
on
04-27-14

Digital Minimalism

Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

By:
Cal Newport

Narrated by:
Will Damron,
Cal Newport

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,872

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,631

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,609

Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the best-selling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

5 out of 5 stars

How To Live The Good Life

By
Anonymous User
on
02-12-19

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

By:
Cal Newport

Narrated by:
Dave Mallow

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,846

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,347

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,347

In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed - preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work - but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do.

4 out of 5 stars

Good Counter to all the "Passion" Career Lit

By
Erin
on
06-12-13

Summary: Cal Newport's Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

By:
Ant Hive Media

Narrated by:
Doron Alon

Length: 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
50

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
39

Story

3.5 out of 5 stars
38

One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results. Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.

4 out of 5 stars

Just enough to make me want to buy the whole book

By
Michael
on
02-28-17

How to Become a Straight-A Student

The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less

By:
Cal Newport

Narrated by:
Johnathan McClain

Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
102

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
89

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
88

A breakthrough approach to acing academic assignments, from quizzes and exams to essays and papers, How to Become a Straight-A Student reveals for the first time the proven study secrets of real straight-A students across the country and weaves them into a simple, practical system that anyone can master.

4 out of 5 stars

Wish I would've bought the paper book

By
Twomsixer
on
02-28-19

Ultralearning

Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career

By:
Scott Young

Narrated by:
Scott Young

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
219

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
195

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
191

Future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage by learning the skill necessary to stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way in this essential guide. Scott Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself - among them Ben Franklin, Judit Polgar, and Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymaths like Nigel Richards who won the World Championship of French Scrabble - without knowing French.

5 out of 5 stars

The best book on learning, and I read a few!

By
Allan Bravos
on
08-20-19

Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By:
Greg McKeown

Narrated by:
Greg McKeown

Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,598

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,098

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,951

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy - instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
Essentialism is not one more thing - it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives.
Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.

5 out of 5 stars

Multiple reads required

By
Chris
on
04-27-14

Atomic Habits

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

By:
James Clear

Narrated by:
James Clear

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
18,291

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
15,820

Story

5 out of 5 stars
15,642

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.

5 out of 5 stars

Personal 2018.11

By
Robert F. Jones
on
11-10-18

Give and Take

A Revolutionary Approach to Success

By:
Adam M. Grant PhD

Narrated by:
Brian Keith Lewis

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,722

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,342

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,335

For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But today, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. It turns out that at work, most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return.

4 out of 5 stars

Give ‘Til it Helps - Your Company

By
Cynthia
on
04-15-13

Summary of Deep Work by Cal Newport | Includes Analysis

By:
Instaread

Narrated by:
Dwight Equitz

Length: 21 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
46

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
35

Story

4 out of 5 stars
34

Deep Work describes a method of engaging with one's professional efforts in a full and immersive manner to produce better results. This type of focused effort does not require longer hours. Instead, a seasoned practitioner can accomplish more in a shorter time frame. Furthermore, the product of this working style will be of a higher quality than what others produce when they attempt to work while succumbing to the noise of distractions around them, particularly those related to technological overload.

3 out of 5 stars

A little to short

By
Ron
on
04-19-16

The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals

By:
Sean Covey,
Chris McChesney,
Jim Huling

Narrated by:
Sean Covey,
Chris McChesney,
Jim Huling

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,122

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,829

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,811

The 4 Disciplines of Execution provides a simple, proven formula for achieving the goals that every individual or organization needs to reach. From Marriott to the U.S. Navy, Covey and his team have worked with more than 200,000 people in hundreds of organizations to improve performance, identifying and honing four secrets of perfect execution: Focus on the Wildly Important; Act on the Lead Measures; Keep a Compelling Scoreboard; and Create a Cadence of Accountability.

5 out of 5 stars

a must read for every leader

By
Erik T Frank
on
09-06-16

The ONE Thing

The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

By:
Gary Keller,
Jay Papasan

Narrated by:
Timothy Miller,
Claire Hamilton

Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,695

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,895

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,809

This is an audiobook for busy people. If you want less on your plate and more for your life and career, tune in to the #1
Wall Street Journal best seller,
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. The ONE Thing will bring your life and your work into focus. Authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan teach you the tricks to cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time, dial down stress, and master what matters to you.

5 out of 5 stars

Really Helpful Book!

By
Marisela Gutierrez
on
04-01-17

Never Split the Difference

Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

By:
Chris Voss

Narrated by:
Michael Kramer

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
32,020

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
28,510

Story

5 out of 5 stars
28,295

After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI's lead international kidnapping negotiator.
Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss' head.

5 out of 5 stars

Needs PDF companion file

By
John L. Pinkowski
on
03-07-17

Getting Things Done

The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

By:
David Allen

Narrated by:
David Allen

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,574

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,012

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,953

David Allen reads an all-new edition of his popular self-help classic for managing work-life balance in the 21st century - now updated for the new challenges facing individuals and organizations in today's rapidly changing world. Since it was first published more than 15 years ago, David Allen's
Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era and the ultimate book on personal organization.

5 out of 5 stars

Worthy Upgrade - Worth Your Time

By
BillLampert
on
03-07-16

Stumbling on Happiness

By:
Daniel Gilbert

Narrated by:
Daniel Gilbert

Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
3,604

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,077

Story

4 out of 5 stars
2,051

A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we're so lousy at predicting what will make us happy, and what we can do about it.

5 out of 5 stars

Great Book!

By
Jaxx
on
06-09-06

The Effective Executive

The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done

By:
Peter F. Drucker

Narrated by:
Jim Collins,
Tim Andres Pabon

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,406

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,190

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,178

For decades, Peter F. Drucker was widely regarded as "the dean of this country's business and management philosophers" (
Wall Street Journal). In this concise and brilliant work, he looks to the most influential position in management - the executive. The measure of the executive, Drucker reminds us, is the ability to "get the right things done". This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive.

3 out of 5 stars

Narrator hard to listen to

By
Phillip
on
07-17-17

Rebel Talent

Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life

By:
Francesca Gino

Narrated by:
Tamara Marston

Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
167

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
144

Story

4 out of 5 stars
143

Francesca Gino has been studying rebels in life and in the workplace for more than 15 years. She has discovered that rebels - those who practice "positive deviance" at work - are harder to manage, but they are good for the bottom line: their passion, drive, curiosity, and creativity raise the entire organization to a new level. And she has found that at home, rebels are more engaged partners, parents, and friends. Packed with strategies for embracing rebellion at work and in life, Rebel Talent encourages all of us to rebel against what’s comfortable, so that we can thrive.

5 out of 5 stars

Curious

By
Amazon Customer
on
08-28-18

Indistractable

How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

By:
Nir Eyal,
Julie Li

Narrated by:
Nir Eyal

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
194

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
174

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
170

In Indistractable, Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving us to distraction. He describes why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off our devices: Abstinence is impractical and often makes us want more. Eyal lays bare the secret of finally doing what you say you will do with a four-step, research-backed model. Indistractable reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of us.

5 out of 5 stars

Most tactical and practical book on focus

By
BartholemewG
on
08-27-19

Thinking, Fast and Slow

By:
Daniel Kahneman

Narrated by:
Patrick Egan

Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,941

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,011

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,912

The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking. Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains....

5 out of 5 stars

Wow. Academic at times, but very thought-provoking

By
John
on
03-01-12

Publisher's Summary

One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive 21st-century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep - spending their days instead in a frantic blur of email and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules", for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the listener on a journey through memorable stories - from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business-class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air - and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide for anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Critic Reviews

"This book changed my mind. It has moved me from 'find your passion, so that you can be useful' to 'be useful so that you can find your passion.' That is a big flip, but it's more honest, and that is why I am giving each of my three young adult children a copy of this unorthodox guide." (Kevin Kelly, senior maverick,
WIRED magazine)

"'Do what you love and the money will follow' sounds like great advice - until it's time to get a job and disillusionment quickly sets in. Cal Newport ably demonstrates how the quest for 'passion' can corrode job satisfaction. If all he accomplished with this book was to turn conventional wisdom on its head, that would be interesting enough. But he goes further - offering advice and examples that will help you bypass the disillusionment and get right to work building skills that matter." (Daniel H. Pink, best-selling author of
Drive and
A Whole New Mind)

"Entrepreneurial professionals must develop a competitive advantage by building valuable skills. This book offers advice based on research and reality - not meaningless platitudes - on how to invest in yourself in order to stand out from the crowd. An important guide to starting up a remarkable career." (Reid Hoffman, cofounder and chairman of LinkedIn and coauthor of the best-selling
The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career)

1.5x pace

Recommend listening at 1.5x pace to keep engaged throughout. Some dry points, but worth finishing as there are several actionable recommendations and ways to re-imagine how we spend our work and extracurricular time.

Formulaic Self Help

This is another book in the Formulaic Self Help Genre. The formula is: Propose an idea that everyone already agrees with, and take it to an extreme, then reference a handful of rich and famous people and claim they sort of follow your extreme proposal, then give a multistep program to implement your proposal in the reader's life.

Most books in this genre have the same weakness, they fail to point out that most people that follow their program are not rich or famous. Such books also don't discuss the many other rich and famous people who do the exact opposite of the proposed method, yet achieve greatness.

In this case, Deep Work is focusing and avoiding distractions while working. Good advice. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that have great focus and avoid distractions while working but don't achieve greatness, because they are focusing quite deeply on the wrong thing. There are also a lot of people who create best with many people working together in a dynamic and distracting environment. Some with rock music, others with 10 screens of continuous data.

I am an introvert and don't engage in social media (never read or sent a tweet, check facebook about 3 times/yearm very limited email). I think the advice given would work pretty well for introverts, I am not so sure about this working for other personality types and work styles.

If you are an introvert with a social media addiction, this book may be helpful to you.For me it was not worth my time.

The narration was OK for a self help book.The PDF is basically just a list of references.

Academics ONLY

If you work in any kind of operational environment, this is not the book for you. I really struggled through the first 4 chapters...straining to not give up. Those first chapters consist of the author referencing other academics, as if this was a research paper. I finally skipped that last half of chapter four. On to the good part, so I thought... Give me some rules, as the title explains. Well, those don't help either unless you work at a university and can lock yourself in an office for at least 5 hours a day. Let me sum it up, turn off your phone and email (wow, thanks...original idea there that is not in hundreds of other books, but yeah, good advise). Then, get rid of all of your social media....eye roll. He even talks about one &quot;professor&quot; who happily tells the world that he gave up all email on January 1st 1990....yeah, 1990.... Ok, now batch your work. Yet, another example of another &quot;professor&quot; that only teaches in the fall and researches in the spring and summer so he can &quot;deep work&quot;.

I was looking for a couple pointers on how to &quot;focus in a distracted world&quot;, and what I learned was that I need to become a university professor.

Waste of time

Let me save you a few hours, this books is worth about three blog posts. The first half of the books is about why Cal believes Deep Work matters. Skip it, it's fluffy stories and motivation. The second half of the book is about how to do "Deep Work" If it's never occurred to you to restrict or remove email and social media then perhaps it's useful to read. There's a tiny section on block scheduling and a short section on improving focus and attention that could be useful, but are better already covered by Newport's Study Hacks blog.

Not too deep...

The premise of the book is great - and I fully agree with it. However, the contents are mostly common sense and I personally didn't find anything I didn't already know and wanted to, in this book. I already shared the author's opinion that deep work is important and desirable before I read (listened to) the book. Unfortunately for me, he spends a huge chunk of the book selling the concept, supported by research evidence no one really needs (do we really need the details of dozens of scientific research projects to believe that we get more done when we direct our undivided attention to one focused, deep work?) then proceeds to give okay, but far from groundbreaking advice, such as controlling your schedule, making yourself less accessible to distraction, ignoring social media, etc. The added value in the book would make for a very meaty magazine article, but sadly, it makes a very content-light book that feels padded, with little substance and nothing ground breaking. I believe that my opinion has to do with the fact that the author is in academia, where an original thought, a completed research project, a dissertation, a well documented academic paper, a lecture, etc. is considered a tangible achievement in and of itself, while I'm a business owner i.e. I either get stuff done others are willing to pay for or I don't eat. And deep work has always helped me with that, so I didn't need to be sold on that. If you are a creative or business owner, you don't need or have time for 40 pages to make a simple point. You need the get-to-the-point summary and then you go deep and execute - or you'll be in deep something else.

Taking a stance!

A great productivity book that takes a stance and offers concrete steps you can follow, to be more productive. *Productive* as in *increased creative output* – not "productive" as in David Allen's GTD, where productivity largely means "crankin' widgets and emptying your inbox" – a surefire system to "get busy – and *stay* busy – while feeling productive".

I recommend Cal's book to anyone entrapped in social media and/or email and IM. Especially those who're doing creative work like writing, artistic endeavours, innovation, etc.

If that's you, this book will set you free, unleashing your creative work, by giving it the space, time, energy and *respect* (from yourself) that it rightly deserves – and *needs* in order to thrive, evolve, grow, and be *shared* with the world, in a format that is *usefu*l to other people.

Drafts and ideas on your laptop is just that: drafts and ideas. To turn that raw material (of genius maybe) into something real and concrete: takes deep work. It is the *difficult* part. The crucial, tedious 80% of the creation process. Doing deep work requires dedicated time, space and energy. And taking a stance – respecting *yourself* and *your work* enough. To *do* the work. Your *deep* work.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distract

The title tells you what is in the book. Indeed, there are many distractions in our everyday lives. Sometimes we do not recognize the distractions and we may not fully realize how even the minor distractions pull us away from our best work. For college students, like myself, I am always looking for a better, faster way to study and learn. Time seems to be my enemy robbing me of the time needed to finish projects and study for exams. After reading this book and taking allotted time without distractions I am now able to get more accomplished in less time. Originally I was not sure I could find more time, the time I did not have to begin with, to use the guidelines suggested in the book. Just the opposite happened and found the suggestions gave me more free time and made study more rewarding.

Reality and Cost of Social Flow,

The reality that shallow work pressures distract us from deep work has a significant impact on many people and organizations. Coming from the technology world where Agile development, open office, social collaboration is the trend, we need to be conscious of the impact this shallow work has on the deep work required to build strong foundations. The key to success will be finding the right balance.